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Philly Cops Admit That They’re Tracking “First Amendment Activity” Critical of AI

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Philly Cops Admit That They’re Tracking “First Amendment Activity” Critical of AI


Americans speaking out against artificial intelligence data centers on social media are falling under police surveillance, a confidential law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Intercept reveals.

A fusion center in Philadelphia combed through spicy internet comments from AI critics and concluded there is a growing risk of physical violence against data centers from “domestic violent extremists,” ranging from white supremacists to anarchists.

“Domestic violent extremists (DVEs) are likely interested in targeting artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, posing a physical and cyber threat to infrastructure in the Philadelphia regional area,” the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center wrote in a December alert.

The fusion center distributed its warning, marked “for official use only,” through the national fusion center network of state, local, and federal police agencies.

Like many of the reports produced by fusion centers, the bulletin points to news reports and social media posts, but cites little in the way of tangible threats. It acknowledges “a lack of specific information on plans to target AI data centers in the Philadelphia area,” but warns law enforcement that three planned data center facilities in the region could become targets of future protests.

Some of the anti-AI posts included in the document reflect hyperbolic anti-AI rhetoric that is widespread across social media, including an unnamed internet user who “indicated a desire to ‘burn down’ data centers.” Other examples of potentially terroristic posts included references to a fictional anti-robot movement in the science fiction novel “Dune” and a Facebook meme.

The fusion center, housed inside the Philadelphia Police Department, warned that “disruptive First Amendment activity” is an “indicator” of risk from “Domestic Violent Extremists,” an expansive term favored by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Fusion centers, which sprouted up across the country after the September 11, 2001, attacks, have long been criticized for doing little to thwart actual terror plots and too much to subject lawful protesters to suspicion and surveillance. They have previously warned local cops about the supposed threat from Black Lives Matter protesters and Keystone XL to Line 3 pipeline opponents.

Pennsylvania has its own history of counterterror agencies targeting advocacy groups. In 2010, then-Gov. Ed Rendell apologized for the state Department of Homeland Security contracting with a private firm to produce fearmongering reports on groups including anti-fracking activists.

When it came to the recent data center activist report, longtime Philadelphia civil rights lawyer Paul Hetznecker said he was troubled by the fusion center’s association of AI skeptics with terrorists.

“Those are legitimate, popular political concerns that are raised by local communities.”

“Those are legitimate, popular political concerns that are raised by local communities,” Hetznecker said. “This particular report from [the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center] reflects a very dangerous attempt to characterize that protected First Amendment activity — activity which is fundamental to our democracy — as something other, something more dangerous, a breeding ground for something more sinister.”

In response to questions emailed to the Philadelphia Police Department and the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, a spokesperson responded with a statement asserting that the center “recognizes and respects the rights of individuals to lawfully express opinions, engage in peaceful advocacy, and participate in protected First Amendment activities.”

“Fusion centers exist to help stakeholders understand emerging threats and hazards that could impact public safety, critical infrastructure, major events, government facilities, businesses, and the communities we serve,” said Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department. “These assessments cover a wide range of topics and are designed to provide situational awareness, not to characterize lawful activity or constitutionally protected speech as criminal conduct.”

The Intercept obtained the Philadelphia report as part of a larger cache of such documents from local fusion centers. It adds to growing evidence that counterterror officials are putting data center skeptics under a microscope. Last week, Wired magazine reported on other notices from local intelligence agencies warning about “anti-tech extremism.” Journalists Ken Klippenstein and Dan Boguslaw also reported on a document from the U.S. Capitol Police Intelligence Services Bureau warning of the potential for anti-data center violence.

The reports are tied to a genuine upswell in popular pushback against data centers. The opposition extends well beyond the mishmash of far-right and far-left groups identified in the Philadelphia fusion center’s report. Seven out of 10 Americans oppose having data centers as neighbors, a recent Gallup poll found.

The fusion center report frames the outcry as a potential first step toward violence, telling local police with jurisdiction over the roughly 16 data centers near Philadelphia that they should be aware of angry online posts.

The report warns about posts on an “anti-capitalist blog that remains popular amongst local anarchist extremist collectives.”

Under a title urging “Butlerian Jihad Against AI” — a reference to a book in the Dune science-fantasy series about humans revolting against their intelligent computer overlords — a post on the Philly Anti-Capitalist blog said “only we can decide to smash the screens that are brainwashing us into submission. The time is now, the day is here, ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!”

The post was unattributed, did not include targets for attack, and included a cartoonish sketch of an old-fashioned computer struck by arrows. Nevertheless, local intelligence analysts appeared to take the threat seriously.

The bulletin also ticked off other signs of anti-data center furor. There was a meme post on shared on a local Facebook account with text reading: “I cannot escape the feeling that I am morally obligated to sabotage AI data center infrastructure.” Commenters on the post had discussed a proposed Amazon data center near Berwick, Pennsylvania, as a “potential target,” according to the report. The Intercept was able to find other versions of this meme posted to Facebook and Instagram unrelated to the targeting of specific, physical data centers.

The fusion center bulletin also said that white supremacists and members of the dark online subculture dubbed “nihilistic violent extremism” by the FBI had agitated online against data centers.

The document also mentioned a DHS report highlighting a thread on an online image board where users discussed using magnets, explosives, or even — in an idea that reflected a sci-fi movie trope — an electromagnetic pulse weapon to take out data centers.

The fusion center analysts appeared to take seriously other rhetoric proposing dramatic attacks. “In addition to general anti-AI data center rhetoric, online users have recently discussed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) for carrying out attacks varying from simple swatting and hoax threats to property damage, arson, and even the use of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) material,” the report said.

“That appears to be an effort by law enforcement to hype up the threat where there may be no threat at all.”

Hetznecker, the civil rights lawyer, said the idea of a nuclear threat raised concerns for him about the quality of the fusion center’s sources and its conclusions.

“That appears to be an effort by law enforcement to hype up the threat where there may be no threat at all,” he said. “To increase scrutiny on First Amendment activities by lumping in those activities with the most extreme, possible scenarios one could imagine that have no factual basis.”

The Philadelphia fusion center report specifically warned authorities of the likelihood that new local data centers could be the traget of protest.

“There is potential for significant pushback to the three newly proposed AI data centers in the Philadelphia area. Indicators of an increased threat in the short term may consist of more disruptive First Amendment activity in opposition to AI data centers, small acts of vandalism, online calls for action to boycott and or protest local AI data centers in the Philadelphia area, and extensive criticism of higher utility bills resulting from AI data centers,” the report said.

The mention of boycotts, criticism, and other activities protected by the First Amendment raised red flags for Hetznecker.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see heightened law enforcement scrutiny on legitimate expressions of AI data center concerns, and I hope that would not chill the appropriate dialogue that needs to occur on the impact of data centers on local communities,” he said.

Update: June 1, 2026, 11:01 a.m. ET
The article was updated with a statement from the Philadelphia Police Department received after publication.

When national security becomes market logic

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When national security becomes market logic

In recent weeks, Japan halted South Korean equity firm MBK Partners’ acquisition of machine-tool manufacturer Makino Milling Machine on national security grounds. Around the same time, the British government reportedly signaled discomfort with Bharti Enterprises’ plan to increase its stake in telecom giant British Telecom beyond a critical threshold. Meanwhile, Dutch authorities blocked the takeover […]

The post When national security becomes market logic appeared first on Asia Times.

From 15 hours to one minute: How AI/ML is speeding up GM’s development

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From 15 hours to one minute: How AI/ML is speeding up GM’s development

When we met Sterling Anderson in 2024, he was the chief product officer of Aurora, the self-driving startup he cofounded in 2016 after several years at Tesla. Just over a year ago, though, Anderson decamped from the startup world for something a little more established, taking over as chief product officer at General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker. Since then, he’s had a good view of how GM is entering what he calls the third epoch of engineering and design.

“There was a time when humans looked at birds and were like, ‘OK, those wings seem to work pretty well. Let’s go and design something that looks like them.’” Anderson said, describing the first age of engineering. “And they just kind of iterated their way to something that was marginally feasible.”

The first few hundred years of inventing “was this era of highly empirical iterative design development and engineering,” he said. “And by that I mean humans largely started with what we know or had seen, built prototypes of something that kind of looked like it and maybe tweaked some things, hoping to make it perform better, tested it, iterated, and kind of went through this slow guess-and-check process until we got to something that marginally worked.”

The second age began as computers became powerful enough to do some of the early work. “We started to see virtual development tools, in functionally specific ways, improve the work that people did so they didn’t have to go to empirical prototypical development,” Anderson said.

“For instance, we started to see CFD [computational fluid dynamics] start to inform aero engineers,” he said. “We saw FEA [finite element analysis] inform structural engineers. We saw any number of other virtual tools… but the relay race that was development remained the same, which is to say design passed the baton to aero which passed the baton to structures, just always passed the baton back when they found something that the other guys had to fix.”

But Anderson’s world recently moved into its third epoch, “which is where GM has really been pushing, which is a collapse of those functions into a single broadly informed, largely probabilistic method for design, development and manufacturing of these assets,” he explained. And yes, by probabilistic, he means AI/machine learning.

Probable cause

Using simulation for engineering work like CFD—versus using physical models in a physical wind tunnel—sped up that work, but the complexities of simulation mean it’s very computationally demanding in terms of resources and time. But you can teach a computer how to virtualize that analysis and then run multiple virtualizations in parallel using AI/ML; last month, we reported on just such an example, when IBM and the race car manufacturer Dallara published research showing how the approach produces data that’s well-correlated enough to use.

When you realize just how much faster these new tools are, it becomes extremely clear why GM is embracing them. “Our FEA runs that historically were 15 hours per run? They’re now one minute,” Anderson told me.

Rather than setting up a simulation to run overnight and hoping nothing goes wrong, “when you run this thing in one minute, you’re just pumping through iterations at a much faster clip and you can run a much broader set of tests than you could ever have done before, just given the time available to you,” Anderson said.

But the reach of these new virtualization tools goes well beyond early engineering analyses and the domains of aerodynamics or structural design, reaching into GM’s other businesses: motorsport, energy and batteries, defense, and even its lunar program.

“We’re not using virtual tools just to check our work after we’ve done vehicle design, but we’re actually giving our engineers a virtual environment where they can simultaneously optimize the hardware and the software and inform hardware design or software design or vehicle performance in a way that nobody in the industry is doing, especially at the scale and the speed of what we’re doing,” said Jason Fischer, executive director of virtual integration engineering at GM.

“The beauty of these virtual tools is our collaboration with our motorsports team with NASCAR and Formula One,” Fischer continued. “We co-develop a lot of these tools together and then we independently develop tools depending on who’s got the strength and the bandwidth between the organizations to do that. And as one outpaces the other, we actually sit down and we have a monthly technology transfer between motorsports, and I’ll say the production side of things to ensure that we’re all seeing the latest and greatest technology and using the latest techniques.”

Drive it before you build it

One example Anderson and Fischer walked me through was using virtualization to perform a handling test for a vehicle in development, specifically Consumer Reports’ avoidance test, where a car has to swerve at speed to avoid an obstacle. Instead of connecting all the various subcomponents of a car’s electronics on a test bench to see if they talk to each other without errors, GM now models all the sensors, electronic control units, domain controllers, and so on.

“We actually have IP protection on how we’ve set this system up at General Motors where we can put together the vehicle behavior from a physics perspective,” Fischer said. “So [we can now] run vehicle performance, electronic control units, and software simultaneously in this virtual environment, and we can really open up our design space exploration. This allows us to actually change physical parameters and run thousands of designs of experiments to see how the control logic handles that,” Fischer said.

A screenshot from a vehicle dynamics virtualization as it tests a prototype on collision avoidance.

General Motors

A screenshot from a vehicle dynamics virtualization as it tests a prototype on collision avoidance. General Motors

A screenshot of a traditional vehicle dynamics simulation.

A screenshot of a traditional vehicle dynamics simulation, which is how GM used to do it.

General Motors

A screenshot of a traditional vehicle dynamics simulation, which is how GM used to do it. General Motors

Since you can easily change conditions like road conditions digitally, it’s simple to iterate through many more variations than was previously possible. “Then you start getting a result that performs well not in this particular maneuver, but it’s actually hardened against [the] real world,” Fischer told me.

Crash performance is improving because engineers can identify weak points and strengthen them well before a physical vehicle ever meets an immovable structure at 40 mph. “It takes about 15 to 18 hours to run this, depending on complexity,” Fischer said. “We’re using probabilistic methods, artificial intelligence, and we can get that down to about less than one minute. And it’s not about the time savings in terms of allowing somebody to go home and sleep at night. It’s the fact that one minute later, we know what the answer is, and we can start optimizing that structural performance, and that gives us the ability to look at other things.”

A new vehicle’s HVAC system is another example. Instead of independently designing and optimizing individual components and then connecting and calibrating them, GM can now simultaneously balance airflow and refrigerant behavior with cabin comfort, doing in days or hours what used to take months or weeks. “It really gives our engineers time back to dig deeper and be innovative in their creative designs as opposed to doing repetitive tasks or doing that iterative grind,” Fischer said.

That includes their colleagues who design the factories that build the cars that GM sells to customers—digital twins of new assembly lines are created well in advance of any actual hardware being installed to iron out the bugs.

SOCAR Installs New Executive Team at Italiana Petroli

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IwPost
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Italiana Petroli has named new senior executives following the completion of its acquisition by Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) last month. The appointments mark the first major leadership changes since the Italian refiner was formally integrated into the SOCAR Group.

The company announced that former chief financial officer Leonardo Caputo has taken on the role of head of general operations, overseeing refining, supply and logistics. In a statement posted on LinkedIn, Italiana Petroli said Caputo will be responsible for ensuring the smooth operational management of the company’s core activities.

In mid‑May, the refiner also appointed Levan Davitashvili, former economy minister of Georgia, as its new chief executive officer. Davitashvili has already begun leading Italiana Petroli’s operations in Italy, with a mandate to maintain operational continuity, strengthen the company’s position in the national energy market, and guide its integration into SOCAR’s wider corporate structure.

The Brachetti‑Peretti family, founders of Italiana Petroli, agreed last September to sell the company in a deal reportedly valued at around 3 billion euros.

Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats

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Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats

These Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats are soft, gooey, crispy, and full of cozy holiday flavor. They take the classic marshmallow cereal treat and give it a festive twist with molasses, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

This easy no-bake dessert comes together in just 20 minutes, making it perfect for Christmas parties, cookie trays, holiday gift boxes, school treats, or cozy family nights at home. Every bite has that familiar Rice Krispie crunch with the warm spiced flavor of gingerbread.

Why You’ll Love These Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats

  • Easy no-bake holiday dessert
  • Ready in only 20 minutes
  • Soft, gooey, and crispy
  • Made with simple ingredients
  • Perfect for Christmas parties
  • Great for gifting
  • Kid-friendly and fun to decorate

What Makes These Treats Special?

Classic Rice Krispie treats are already delicious, but adding gingerbread spices makes them feel extra festive.

Molasses gives the treats their rich gingerbread flavor and warm color, while cinnamon, ginger, and cloves add that cozy holiday spice. The result is a simple dessert that tastes like Christmas but still has the chewy, crispy texture everyone loves.

Ingredients

  • 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
  • 10 oz mini marshmallows
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons molasses
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

How to Make Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats

Step 1: Prepare the Pan

Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper or lightly grease it with butter.

This helps the treats lift out easily once they are set.

Step 2: Melt the Butter

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

Keep the heat gentle so the butter does not brown or burn.

Step 3: Add the Marshmallows

Add the mini marshmallows to the melted butter.

Stir constantly until the marshmallows are completely melted and smooth.

Step 4: Add the Gingerbread Flavor

Stir in the molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and vanilla extract if using.

Mix until the spices are evenly blended into the marshmallow mixture.

The mixture will turn a warm brown color and smell like gingerbread.

Step 5: Add the Cereal

Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Add the Rice Krispies cereal and gently fold until every piece is coated in the spiced marshmallow mixture.

Be careful not to crush the cereal.

Step 6: Press Into the Pan

Transfer the mixture into the prepared pan.

Use a spatula or lightly greased hands to press it evenly into the pan.

Do not press too hard, or the treats may become dense.

Step 7: Let Set

Allow the treats to cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes, or until firm.

Step 8: Cut and Serve

Lift the treats out of the pan using the parchment paper.

Cut into squares or use holiday cookie cutters for festive shapes.

Serve and enjoy.

Decorating Ideas

Holiday Sprinkles

Add red, green, or white sprinkles before the treats set.

White Chocolate Drizzle

Drizzle melted white chocolate over the cooled treats for extra sweetness.

Gingerbread Shapes

Use gingerbread men, stars, or Christmas tree cookie cutters for a fun holiday look.

Crushed Candy Canes

Sprinkle crushed candy canes on top for peppermint crunch.

Edible Glitter

Add edible glitter for a festive sparkle.

Tips for the Best Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats

Use Low Heat

Melting marshmallows over low heat keeps the treats soft and chewy.

Don’t Overpack the Pan

Press gently when spreading the mixture into the pan. Too much pressure can make the treats hard.

Work Quickly

Once the cereal is added, the mixture sets fast, so spread it into the pan right away.

Add Extra Marshmallows

For extra gooey treats, add 1 extra cup of mini marshmallows.

Adjust the Spices

Add more cinnamon or ginger if you want a stronger gingerbread flavor.

Variations

Chocolate Gingerbread Treats

Drizzle with melted dark or milk chocolate.

Gingerbread White Chocolate Treats

Mix in white chocolate chips after the cereal is coated.

Extra Gooey Version

Add extra mini marshmallows right before pressing into the pan.

Gingerbread Cookie Crunch

Mix in crushed gingersnap cookies for extra flavor and texture.

Dairy-Free Version

Use dairy-free butter and vegan marshmallows.

Storage Instructions

Store Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

To keep them soft, place a slice of bread in the container. The bread helps maintain moisture.

Freezing Instructions

Wrap each square individually in wax paper.

Place in a freezer-safe bag or container.

Freeze for up to 1 month.

Thaw at room temperature before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Use Regular Marshmallows?

Yes. Regular marshmallows work well, but mini marshmallows melt faster and more evenly.

Why Are My Rice Krispie Treats Hard?

They may have been cooked over heat that was too high or pressed too firmly into the pan.

Can I Make These Ahead of Time?

Yes. These treats can be made 1 to 2 days ahead and stored in an airtight container.

Can I Use More Molasses?

You can add a little more, but too much molasses may make the treats sticky and overpowering.

Can I Cut Them Into Shapes?

Yes. Use cookie cutters after the treats have cooled and set.

Recipe Information

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 12 squares

Final Thoughts

These Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats are an easy and festive way to enjoy classic holiday flavors without turning on the oven. They are soft, crispy, gooey, warmly spiced, and perfect for sharing.

Whether you’re making them for Christmas parties, homemade gifts, or a cozy winter snack, this simple no-bake recipe is guaranteed to bring holiday cheer to every bite.

ROG Xbox Ally X20 adds OLED screen, control upgrades

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ROG Xbox Ally X20 adds OLED screen, control upgrades

When the Steam Deck OLED launched three years ago, we were glad to see that the new, more brilliant screen fixed the biggest flaw of Valve’s original handheld hardware. So we’re unsurprisingly excited about today’s announcement that Asus is preparing a new, OLED-equipped ROG Xbox Ally X20 for the coming holiday season. Still, it’s a bit worrying that Asus is positioning the new upgrade as a niche collector’s item rather than its new handheld gaming standard.

The X20 expands the 7-inch screen found on last year’s ROG Xbox Ally line to 7.4 inches, matching the display on the Steam Deck OLED and approaching the 7.9-inch screen on the Switch 2. The 1080p HDR panel also increases the maximum brightness from 500 nits on original Xbox Ally models to a full 1400 and adds some new anti-glare coating that should help when playing in direct sunlight. The X20’s 120 Hz display now supports Dolby Vision HDR colors and FreeSync Premium Pro to help smooth frame rates while still providing a larger color gamut.

On the control front, the X20 introduces magnetic TMR thumbsticks, replacing the carbon-film potentiometers that made the original Xbox Ally more prone to stick drift and physical wear. A new D-pad on the X20 also introduces a neat little lift-and-twist design that can transform it from a four-direction cross to a more circular eight-direction pad, similar to the convertible D-pad found on some now-classic Xbox 360 controllers.

Press outlets that got early hands-on time with the X20 reported a few other incidental upgrades, such as quieter, more rounded face buttons and better-feeling rubberized grips on the translucent black-and-gold shell.

Hope you like augmented reality

Even though the internal specs on the X20 are unchanged from last year’s ROG Xbox Ally X, the surface improvements sound like a welcome refresh to Asus’ promising line of handheld gaming PCs. Unfortunately, Asus seems to be positioning the X20 as a limited-edition bundled curiosity rather than a new standard-bearer for handheld gaming.

That’s because today’s announcement of the ROG Xbox Ally X was really an announcement of an “All-New ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundle,” as Asus puts it (emphasis added). The hardware is currently positioned only as part of a special “20th anniversary” bundle that also includes a pair of Xreal R1 AR glasses. Tethering those glasses to the X20 hardware via USB gives users what Asus promises is a 171-inch virtual screen that can either move with them or stay fixed in virtual space as they move their head.

This AR glasses bundle was the only package Asus announced today.

Credit: Asus

This AR glasses bundle was the only package Asus announced today. Credit: Asus

While those kinds of “virtual display” glasses have their fans, they seem much better suited to being a premium optional accessory than a standard inclusion with every device. Asus already sells Xreal R1 glasses for $850, and the ROG Xbox Ally X was retailing for $1,000 last year, before RAM and storage prices sent prices for game consoles and other computing devices soaring.

While Asus isn’t discussing pricing yet, a bundle price approaching or exceeding $2,000 doesn’t seem out of the question when the X20 launches later this year. That price—plus the “Asus’ 20th anniversary” branding for the hardware—would suggest a device with a very limited market and thus a limited production run.

That would be a shame—the upgrades available in the X20 could find a decent audience if they weren’t literally tethered to a pair of expensive AR glasses. Hopefully, Asus will offer a standalone version of the ROG Xbox Ally X20 hardware that will remain available long after the 20th anniversary bundling ends.

As Trump attacks anew, Iran says Europe’s ‘appeasing aggressors’

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As Trump attacks anew, Iran says Europe’s ‘appeasing aggressors’

Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Iran’s government on Monday condemned the European Union’s response to Iranian attacks on US military installations in the Middle East as “a masterclass in selective moral outrage” after the Trump administration launched new strikes against Iran over the weekend, with peace talks still at an impasse.

Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, accused EU leaders of “blaming Iran for exercising its right to self-defense against US aggression launched from bases in neighboring countries,” referring to Iran’s attacks on US air bases in Kuwait. Baqaei said Iran’s strikes “against those bases and assets that are used to launch unlawful attacks against Iran are a lawful exercise of self-defense.”

“The EU must remain faithful to the rule of law and the principles of the UN Charter that it has long claimed to uphold. It must stop appeasing aggressors while blaming those who respond to unlawful attacks,” Baqaei added. “States have an established legal obligation not to allow their territory or assets to be used for invading other countries.”

Baqaei’s statement came in response to remarks from a European Commission spokesperson condemning an Iranian attack on a US air base in Kuwait last week, calling it a violation of Kuwait’s sovereignty. The attack reportedly injured at least four US servicemembers and several American contractors.

The Iranian military said it targeted another US air base on Sunday in response to new attacks by the Trump administration, which launched its illegal war against Iran in late February. While Iran did not specify the location of its target, Kuwait said late Sunday that its “air defenses are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks.”

The Iranian attacks followed the US military’s announcement that it carried out strikes on “Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones” over the weekend. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) described the attacks as “self-defense strikes” and as a “measured and deliberate response” to “aggressive Iranian actions.”

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, wrote in response to CENTCOM’s statement that “this administration’s use of the terms ‘aggression’ and ‘self-defense’ [is] thoroughly in ‘war is peace’ territory.”

The US military also attacked a Gambia-flagged commercial ship in the Gulf of Oman over the weekend, enforcing a Trump administration naval blockade that Iran has condemned as illegal and said must be lifted as part of any peace agreement.

CBS News reported Saturday that “the broad strokes” of a peace deal under consideration “include a 60-day cessation of violence, along with clauses that call for reopening the strait and a framework to reopen negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Multiple sources told CBS that the arrangement also involves the potential of waivers or sanctions relief to Iran that could allow it to access billions in frozen assets depending on the progress of the diplomacy,” the outlet added.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, said early Monday that the Trump administration’s naval blockade and Israel’s “escalation of war crimes in Lebanon” represent “clear evidence of US noncompliance with the ceasefire.”

“Every choice has a price, and the bill comes due,” he added. “It will all fall into place.”

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, wrote on his social media platform that “Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the USA and those that are with us.”

“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end,” Trump declared.

-Common Dreams

Netanyahu, Katz Order Strikes on Beirut as Iran Warns of ‘Consequences’

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Netanyahu, Katz Order Strikes on Beirut as Iran Warns of ‘Consequences’


Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Monday that Israel’s expanding military campaign against Hezbollah violates the ceasefire, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to strike Hezbollah targets in and around Beirut.

In a post on X, Araghchi wrote: “The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” and explained a violation on one front will be considered as a violation on all fronts.

He warned, “The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation.”

The warning came as Israeli leaders signaled a broader offensive against Hezbollah. Earlier Monday, Netanyahu and Katz said Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut’s Dahieh district would no longer be considered exempt from Israeli military action.

“There will be no situation in which Hezbollah attacks our cities and citizens while the terror headquarters in Dahieh remain off-limits,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

He added that Israeli forces were expanding operations in southern Lebanon and targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

“We are continuing to deepen our operations on the ground in southern Lebanon, eliminating Hezbollah strongholds. Hezbollah is on the run. We are determined to restore security to the residents of the north, just as we did for the residents of the south,” Netanyahu said.

Israel had previously refrained from striking the Lebanese capital at the request of the Trump administration.

Speaking separately at a military ceremony, Katz said the IDF was continuing both air and ground operations against Hezbollah and achieving “significant gains” against the group.

“If there is no quiet in the north, there will be no quiet in Beirut … We will not allow a situation in which our communities and citizens are harmed while calm is maintained in Beirut,” Katz said.

Katz said the military’s objective is to “turn the Litani area into a zone under IDF security control, free of weapons and terrorists.”

The exchange of warnings came as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continued despite a ceasefire and ongoing talks in Washington.

A central point of dispute remains Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm, despite a requirement in the ceasefire agreement that the armed group surrender its weapons.

Intel: Our upcoming AI chip will be cheaper, run cooler than Nvidia, AMD options

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Intel: Our upcoming AI chip will be cheaper, run cooler than Nvidia, AMD options

Intel plans to ship an AI chip by the end of this year that uses cheaper memory and cooling technology than rival offerings from Nvidia and AMD, as the US chipmaker seeks to capitalize on a sharp turnaround in its fortunes.

Kevork Kechichian, who leads Intel’s data center group, told the FT that the company is “starting with the basics” as it tries to challenge its rivals in the booming market for semiconductors that power AI.

Its new “Crescent Island” graphics processing unit is designed to speed up “inference” tasks, the stage when a user makes their request, rather than the training of models, an area where Nvidia’s processors are dominant.

An earlier attempt at building a GPU for training AI models called “Gaudi” saw poor sales, and its planned successor was cancelled last year.

“We decided to start rebuilding our muscles in AI… [but] we are not particularly aiming for [the training market] based on past experience,” said Kechichian, who joined Intel last year from chip designer Arm.

He added the new chip would start shipping in limited quantities to customers by the end of this year, following an 18-month development process.

Intel is also looking to take advantage of two constraints encountered by Nvidia and AMD: the need to incorporate expensive high-bandwidth memory and liquid-cooling infrastructure.

Crescent Island is an air-cooled chip that uses LPDDR5 memory, a significantly cheaper type of memory than the HBM used in chips such as Nvidia’s Blackwell.

The effort is Intel’s first push into the lucrative AI infrastructure market under chief executive Lip-Bu Tan, who took over last year after Pat Gelsinger was ousted amid concerns that his turnaround strategy was failing.

Intel’s new GPU was first unveiled in October as part of Tan’s broader effort to revive a product line-up that had allowed Nvidia to dominate the market for chips used to train models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Investors have welcomed the leadership change, after which Tan moved to cut costs and rein in spending on some manufacturing projects. Intel’s shares are up more than 200 percent since the start of this year, part of a broader rally in semiconductor stocks driven by enthusiasm for AI.

Credit: FT

Credit: FT

Kechichian said Intel was assessing whether a version of the chip could potentially be sold in China in compliance with US export controls. Nvidia and AMD’s AI chip sales to the Asian nation have been blocked by trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“There are tiers of [the chip] that might be OK there… and we’ll confirm that over time: clearly there is demand for that particular price point in that particular market,” Kechichian said.

In August the US government announced it would take a 10 percent stake in the company over time, as Donald Trump’s administration sought to deter the chipmaker from selling its foundry manufacturing business.

Intel subsequently launched its own advanced PC and server chips built in its own factories this year, after a long period of having them made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Kechichian said Intel hoped to build its new chip in-house, another move that would ultimately make it cheaper than those offered by rivals who rely on TSMC.

“For all data center products we are moving aggressively into our own foundry,” he said. “That’s the intent in general.”

© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.

‘Royal Family Leech’ Makes Money Demand from King Charles

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‘Royal Family Leech’ Makes Money Demand from King Charles


Sarah Ferguson is once again at the center of a royal firestorm.

The former Duchess of York, long one of the most controversial figures on the edge of the Royal Family, is being blasted by critics as the “ultimate royal family leech” amid claims she may be seeking long-term financial protection from King Charles.

The alleged demand comes as Ferguson is said to be sitting on potentially explosive information involving her ex-husband, Andrew, and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has haunted the House of York for years.

Ferguson, 66, divorced Andrew in 1996, but the pair have remained unusually close. The former couple continued living together at Royal Lodge for years, even as Andrew’s public life collapsed under scrutiny over his friendship with Epstein, the disgraced sex offender.

Now, fresh speculation suggests Ferguson may be weighing whether to accept a lucrative tell-all interview or memoir deal — or quietly secure financial support from the monarchy instead.

According to royal insiders, some figures around the Palace believe Ferguson has repeatedly managed to survive scandal by staying close to the Windsor machine.

“There are people around the institution who see Fergie as the ultimate royal survivor,” one insider claimed, “but also as someone who always finds herself back at the Palace door asking for financial support or protection.”

The source added that the idea of Ferguson receiving a generous private arrangement from King Charles would likely spark outrage among ordinary Britons.

“Critics think the idea of negotiating silence in return for security in the form of a fat annual pension from the King would go down terribly with the public,” the insider said. “She is essentially the ultimate royal family leech, and hard-pressed UK citizens are not fans of freeloaders like her.”

Another royal source claimed there are real fears behind palace walls that Ferguson could reopen one of the monarchy’s most damaging chapters if she ever sat down for a major interview.

“The fear among some senior figures is that any major interview discussing Epstein, Andrew and the York family chaos would reopen one of the darkest chapters of recent royal history,” the source said.

That fear, insiders claim, could make Charles more willing to keep Ferguson quiet.

“He may be likely to effectively buy Sarah’s silence by giving her a pension to shut up for the rest of her life,” the source added.

The latest drama comes after royal biographer Andrew Lownie renewed scrutiny of the York family in his updated book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.

Lownie openly questioned whether Ferguson may be negotiating a private financial arrangement to avoid going public with her side of the story.

“That may be what Fergie’s negotiating at the moment,” Lownie said. “Can she get a nice pension from them and not have to do an Oprah interview?”

The comment immediately fueled speculation that the Royal Family may be facing a difficult choice: let Ferguson talk, or pay to keep her quiet.

Lownie also took aim at Andrew and Ferguson’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, suggesting their place in the modern monarchy has become confusing and awkward.

Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 36, remain royal titleholders, but they are not full-time working royals. Still, they continue appearing at high-profile events and are often seen moving in elite international circles.

“The fact that they are still swanning around the Middle East, using their titles… it doesn’t send out the right signals if you want to work your passage back,” Lownie said. “It’s confusing.”

He added that the York sisters appear stuck in a strange royal limbo.

“I think it’s a very schizophrenic relationship at the moment with the royals and Beatrice and Eugenie,” he said.

The renewed spotlight on Ferguson, Andrew, and their daughters comes as King Charles, 77, continues trying to slim down and modernize the monarchy.

But not everyone inside the family is believed to agree on how to handle the York problem.

According to Lownie, there may be two competing camps inside the Palace.

“One minute they’re very publicly being told they’re not going to be invited to Ascot, then they are going,” he said. “You get the sense of distancing.”

He claimed Queen Camilla, Prince William, and Princess Kate are more wary of the damage the York scandals could cause.

“There’s Camilla, William, and Kate, who see the reputational damage and want to keep them at arm’s length,” Lownie said. “And then there’s Charles, who is a bit sentimental and feels obligated to be protective.”

A palace source echoed that view, claiming William and Kate are taking a far tougher line.

“William and Catherine are far more hardline when it comes to reputational risk,” the source said. “There is a belief among some younger royals that the York scandals continue dragging the institution backwards at a time when Charles is trying to modernize it.”

Andrew’s Disastrous Interview Still Haunts the Palace

The York family’s problems have never fully faded since Andrew’s infamous 2019 Newsnight interview with journalist Emily Maitlis.

The interview was intended to explain Andrew’s friendship with Epstein. Instead, it became a public relations catastrophe.

Andrew stepped away from royal duties soon after and has never returned to public life in the same way.

Despite years of controversy, Ferguson has repeatedly defended her ex-husband and remained loyal to him in public. That loyalty has helped keep her tied to royal circles, even after their divorce.

She has continued appearing at family events and royal gatherings, often alongside senior members of the monarchy.

But critics say her continued presence is becoming harder for the Palace to justify.

Lownie’s updated biography also includes fresh allegations about Andrew’s past behavior toward staff and even claims he once kicked a dog during a royal shooting trip.

For a monarchy trying to project stability, dignity, and a cleaner future under King Charles, the York family remains a constant source of embarrassment.

And now, with whispers of tell-all deals, secret negotiations, and alleged pension demands, Ferguson may once again be proving that she is one royal figure who refuses to disappear quietly.

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